7th Grade Book Reviews
Newsletter created by: Sean Cotton and Alex King
Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment
Alex King
This thrilling page-turner tells the story of Maximum Ride, once a normal baby girl, but taken and turned into a human-avian hybrid at a laboratory. There are others like Max. Called the flock, there are six of them. Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel escaped from the dreaded School and now have to live (and fight) for themselves. Their lives are somewhat terrible. They are homeless. They don’t have parents. And, oh yeah, things called Erasers, human-lupine hybrids, are trying to hunt them down and kill them. The Erasers were created in the same lab as the flock, and the mad scientists are working to upgrade the beasts to have similar qualities as the bird kids. The flock is trying to find where they came from and, fight off bloodthirsty beasts at the same time. Quite a difficult task.
This book was incredible for many reasons. Every chapter consisted of a surprise ending. After something awesome happened, I didn’t want to stop reading. I was on the edge of my seat. I would recommend this book to anyone of all ages that likes fast-paced action and adventure. I would rate this book five stars because it was just my kind of book. I loved how it was told through Max’s perspective on life. When she was in the real world, she thought everything was strange, including the people. I thought it was neat how I could see the life from a bird’s eye too. When the kids were flying, I felt like I was right there with them. Long story short, this book was great and I would highly recommend it.
Lockdown
Sean Cotton
When Alex Smith, a trouble-making 14-year-old boy, is framed for a murder he didn’t commit, he is sent to Furnace Penitentiary, which is quite possibly the most escape-free juvenile detention center in the world. At this freakishly-temperature-infused prison, Alex is surrounded by nothing but rock (Partially because it is a mile underground), “black-suited” guards that are equipped with skinless dogs, who want nothing more than to chew Alex to bits, and finally, all of the inmates, who are just kids under 16, and are all in that place the same reason Alex is. And Donovan, Alex’s resourceful cellmate, who thirsts escape as much as Alex does. Against all odds, Alex makes a friend on the elevator ride down to Furnace, and his name is Zee Hatcher. Zee will have to save Alex’s life a little bit more than once, from, who knows what, maybe a couple of missed lockdown calls, or from an attack from a skinless dog. At this place, the only hope is escape, and Alex has potential idea of just that.
Middle and High School readers will rave about this intense, fast-paced, action-horror. Read on to the next book in the series, called Solitary to find out if Alex and Zee will escape from their imminent fate, or if they will finally be able to smell the outside air, or to run once more on the outside plains, once again. As you have been told before, I promise that you will love the thrill of the Lockdown series.